Taiwan’s population last year grew at its slowest pace in recorded history, rising only slightly to reach 23.571 million people, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
The number of people with household registrations in Taiwan rose by 31,000 from the end of 2016 to the end of last year, a 0.133 percent increase, ministry data showed.
The nation’s population growth, like that of most developed countries, has been on the decline, and the drop has been especially noticeable in recent years. Taiwan now has one of the lowest birth rates in the world.
In 1951, the annual population growth rate was 4.168 percent, but by 1984 it had dropped to 1.483 percent.
The National Development Council said Taiwan’s population is to peak at 23.741 million in 2024, after which it is to stop growing and begin to decline.
Previous studies by the council found that once Taiwan becomes a “super-aged” society by 2026, the population would fall drastically to between 17.07 million and 19.49 million by 2061.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s data showed that nearly 70 percent of Taiwanese reside in the six special municipalities.
New Taipei City remained Taiwan’s most populous city, with 3.98 million registered residents, followed by Taichung with 2.78 million and Kaohsiung with 2.77 million.
While Taoyuan ranked fifth among the six special municipalities by number of registered residents with 2.18 million, it witnessed the steepest population growth last year, with an increase of 1.857 percent.
However, Taipei, with a population of 2.68 million, registered a 0.462 percent decline in population last year.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping